these days we all know there’s Uber Lyft
other ride share companies and you might
think that you’re in a private car and
so being driven by uh just another
private person and therefore there’s no
difference you between being involved in
a crash with an Uber and a Lyft driver
versus being involved in just a crash
involving private passengers private
passenger vehicles to private drivers
but there is a big difference so one of
the things to know is that
um Uber and Lyft provide mandatory
insurance that is much greater than an
individual private passenger vehicle for
instance in Colorado you can be street
legal on the road if you have twenty
five thousand dollars worth of liability
coverage that means if you hurt somebody
you have up to twenty five thousand
dollars to pay for what you cost to them
Uber and Lyft if the uh if the
application is engaged and they have a
passenger in the vehicle and you might
be that passenger or you might be struck
by an Uber who has a passenger they have
a million dollars minimum in coverage
that’s a substantial difference in terms
of your ability to recover that also
means they have a lot more at risk and
that means they’re going to defend the
case more aggressively to try to save
themselves uh that money and so you’re
going to be up in a situation where
you’re much closer to a defense that you
might see in a commercial uh truck case
than in just a private passenger case
one of the things that has to be
determined with Uber drivers is
um they may let’s say there’s an Uber
sticker in the window or a Lyft little
sign in the in the front that doesn’t
tell us the story about what sort of
insurance is available for that
particular vehicle because there’s kind
of three different stages if you drive
for Lyft but you don’t have the
application turned on they don’t provide
any additional coverage beyond what that
private passenger and that is really
just a private passenger on private
passenger uh crash if they have the
application on but no passenger in the
vehicle let’s say they’re going to pick
up a passenger then there’s a different
level of insurance and then the highest
level of insurance that they mandate and
provide is if they have a passenger in
the vehicle at the time and so it’s
important for us to learn through the
investigation what was the status of
that driver actually so that we know
what sort of insurance we’re dealing
with in addition to that Ubers are any
any four hire vehicle is considered a
common carrier they have a higher duty
of care that’s owed to their passengers
than if you and I are just riding in a
car together and so we want to make sure
that that we’re holding them to that
higher standard and the other thing
about Uber and Lyft is that you know
every time they update that application
and you update it on your phone and you
agree to their terms
one of the terms that they are trying to
get you to agree to is arbitration to
take your case out of the court system
if they if you’re a passenger and you’re
involved in a crash with an Uber driver
if you’re a passenger they can’t do that
if you’re driving down the road and
you’re not in their car but what they
try to do is they say if you’re a
passenger that you’re waiving your right
to go to court against them and we’ve
been very successful in demonstrating
that those sorts of mandatory
arbitration agreements may not be
binding and it’s important to uh have
lawyers who have a a track record of
success in uh cases against these ride
shares because there’s a sophisticated
contract actually that also has to be
addressed in terms of what their
liabilities are where you can go to
recover for them whether you just have
to sue the driver or whether you could
bring a claim in court against Uber so
there’s a it becomes quite a complex set
of circumstances and I would say again
that being involved in a vehicle crash
where there’s an Uber or a lift is much
more similar to a commercial vehicle
crash than a private passenger crash and
sometimes you might see the Uber sticker
and you don’t even know right if you see
the Uber sticker you need to make sure
that you’ve told your lawyer hey I got
to tell you I saw an Uber sticker uh on
in that car or a list sticker because
that’s going to Warrant This Love This
different level of examination to to try
to find out what the status of the Uber
is we all know that if you are on those
ride shares you can look on your phone
and you can see the trips the drivers
all have that too and so we can actually
subpoena that information and see what
their status was at the time of your
crash which may impact dramatically the
amount of insurance available
